surveyors in house buying

[athleticsnut]

Does anyone know how a surveyor comes to a valuation on a house?

A surveyor has said the one we are buying is worth less than the agreed price, basing it on a bit of work that needs to be done. Yet we had an offer accepted a long way below the asking price because we had no chain and the owners were in a hurry to move quickly - it is much less than other sales on the same road.

We think he's taken the agreed price and subtracted the work that needs doing off it, as opposed to judging it from scratch.

Can anyone shed some light?

[Buenchico]

A surveyor has to take into account any short-term peaks and troughs in the market. As an example, a TV programme I saw yesterday stated that nearly all of the property in a certain area of Spain was 30% over-valued. This means that a surveyor might correctly value a property at �100K when all of the similar properties in the area are selling at �130k. His task isn't solely to look at the price that the property will fetch now. He knows that his report is likely to be used to help secure a mortgage. As far as building society is concerned, what matters is the figure the house might fetch on the open market in two or three years time if it has to be re-possessed. In other words, the surveyor is quoting a figure which can be used as security against a loan without the lender having to worry about cyclical drops in the market.

Chris